On May 30, Coregistics, Atlanta-based contract packager and supply chain services provdier, anounced the acquisition of Cano Packaging, a Chicago-area company that specializes in primary contract packaging services for food and confectionary manufacturers. The combination of the two companies establishes a Coregistics presence in Chicago, and significantly increases the company’s ability to satisfy much-needed demand with packaging assets that include high-speed cartoning, vertical form/fill/seal, high-speed pouching and overwrapping equipment.
For almost four decades, Cano has been recognized as a food and confectionary contract packaging leader. The Cano team and their expertise compliment Coregistics’ “packaging-centric” approach to supply chain solutions, allowing for a rapid and seamless integration.
“Capacity for food and confectionary packaging services like bagging and pouching is extremely limited in this country. Cano provides a ‘mission critical’ capability that food manufacturers simply do not have enough of internally, especially when it comes to projects that require short runs, small bags or frequent changeovers,” said Eric Wilhelm, CEO of Coregistics. “By infusing Cano’s offering with the same resources and processes that have made Coregistics a successful packaging solutions provider, we can now offer food manufacturers an even more powerful resource for increasing operational efficiency while significantly reducing their total supply chain costs.”
The acquisition of Cano is the second for Wilhelm and his team, who announced in April 2012 the completion of the acquisition of New Jersey-based Market Resource Packaging (MRP).
“MRP allowed us to leverage a proven 20-year track record of providing innovative packaging solutions to some of the largest, most respected brands in the world. The result of the MRP acquisition was the establishment of four logistically relevant supply chain centers – Atlanta, New Jersey, Indianapolis and Memphis. Adding Chicago to this mix now solidifies our geographical coverage, enhances our primary packaging capabilities and provides the step change Coregistics has been planning since its inception,” added Wilhelm.
Cano was founded in Chicago in 1974 and today operates out of a 180,000 sq. ft. temperature- and humidity-controlled facility in the Chicago suburb of Wheeling, IL, from which it offers customers a variety of confection and food industry-specific contract packaging services including bagging, pouching, labeling, cartoning, kit assembly, shrink wrapping, and date coding. The facility meets cGMP and HACCP standards, is AIB and Kosher Certified and has been approved by the FDA.
UPDATE: In an interview with Contract Packaging, Wilhelm noted that the Cano facility currently has capacity in a five-day workweek for “roughly 500 million pieces per year in bags, pouches and cartons,” CEO Eric Wilhelm told Contract Packaging. Based on initial feedback from customers, he estimates immediate demand for at least 150 mm packages a year.
The acquisition will help Coregistics reach a short-term revenue goal of $100 million a year while adding to a synergistic or “coregistic” competency across all company plants.
“This is not just the addition of a facility, and it’s not about going from four plants to five,” Wilhelm said, but an “exponential lift” in services at all facilities. Cano joins a network of co-pack facilities in Atlanta, Indianapolis, Memphis and NJ, the latter resulting from the 2012 acquisition of New Jersey-based Market Resource Packaging. He says a pervasive “Coregistic mentality” will, in effect, cross-pollinate to enhance of primary packaging, secondary packaging and supply chain logistics services across all facilities, reducing network nodes and creating a platform for national service to customers with national brands. Therefore, in addition to establishing a Chicago presence for Coregistics, Cano adds to the pool resources that will have any or all facilities offering co-pack competencies from packaging design and material sourcing; to primary and secondary packaging; to fulfillment, distribution and logistics.
Wilhelm separately confirmed in press reports that he plans to expand the Cano facility from 250 to 1,000 employees and from 180,000 to 1 million square feet of operations space within three years.
